Editor's note

Let this introduction be an actual “introduction.” I’m pleased to present this volume of the Baseball Research Journal for your Hot Stove season reading, so let’s be formal about it. SABR member, interested reader, please meet the top-notch interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal of any and all inquiries into baseball knowledge, the Baseball Research Journal. I feel the need to re-introduce you, since recent communications with SABR members made me think there is some confusion about what the BRJ is, and isn’t.

SABR’s publications program has had various periodicals over the decades, including not only the BRJ, but also The National Pastime (aka TNP), The SABR Review of Books, and others. I was surprised to hear some members tell me they thought that in the past the BRJ was for novice researchers and TNP was for the seasoned pros. A more common, lingering perception is that The National Pastime was for history and the Baseball Research Journal was for stats.

Since I took the editorial seat in 2011, the BRJ has included plenty of both history and stats, not to mention physics, economics, psychology, game theory, sociology, and physiology. Historical topics have ranged from the Negro Leagues to international women’s baseball to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with healthy doses of the minor leagues, college baseball, and nineteenth-century ball served alongside major league history. SABR’s thousands of members are knowledgeable in so many fields, it’s only a matter of time before some architecture, materials science, or meteorology comes across my desk, too.

Remember, if you’re a SABR member, the BRJ wants to see your research. Query me first at ctan@sabr.org and I’ll send you some guidelines and happily dispense advice.